(Photo: Rob Corcoran)In 1972 Cleiland Donnan decided to be part of the solution to racial division in Richmond. It was an unlikely choice for someone who spent their life teaching the fox trot and social graces to the children of Richmond’s affluent West End.

As leader of the Junior Assembly Cotillion, Cleiland trained thousands of budding leaders of the city’s business, political, and cultural life in a career spanning four decades. One observer wrote that parents “sought her attention as avidly as they would an admission counselor to an Ivy League school.”

Her evolution as a risk taker began when she observed young people, including her own neighbors, experiencing the turmoil of school integration.

She often compared her personal journey of change to peeling an onion skin layer by layer: “Sometimes pride gets in the way and I do not want to change today’s layer.”

Listening to an African American explain how he felt about the history of racism she said: “I saw clearly my own false pride in my ancestors and all those beautiful plantations along the James River. Standing out like a bolt of lightening was the hurt and pain and suffering of slavery. But most of all, the seemingly small hurts stood out – my own arrogance, slights, my thinking that ‘they,’ the blacks in the East End, had their place and I deserved my place in the West End of town.”

Cleiland began to open her home to all races – but not without trepidation. When she invited the first black Richmonders she felt it would be more acceptable to tell her neighbors she was expecting “African guests.” But before long she was throwing regular parties for diverse groups and working with an African American friend at her day care center. She sold her prized tobacco stock to help finance a center for racial reconciliation. And, although a proud southerner, she tells of visiting a cemetery where thousands of Union solders lie buried to say “thank you for saving my country.”

Over the years this dancing teacher took her passion for reconciliation from Richmond to the world, traveling with interracial groups to the UK, India, and Africa. She was a founding member of Hope in the Cities and served on its board for many years. Cleiland died last month. She “waltzed away,” wrote the Richmond Times-Dispatch in its obituary. The newspaper also ran a story highlighting her mission for racial healing.

Cleiland Donnan died on March 19 2010 in Richmond, Virginia, aged 88